Sheffield and South Yorkshire organisations are delivering real results with AWS and Azure. These local stories show how public sector and education teams have improved performance, resilience and experience with pragmatic cloud adoption.
The region’s cloud momentum is clear. Universities, councils and healthcare functions are consolidating platforms, modernising apps and improving outcomes with measurable gains.
1) University of Sheffield: Performance uplift on AWS
Impact: The University of Sheffield reported up to a 15× performance improvement after migrating to AWS, working with a local partner. The move modernised student‑facing systems and improved responsiveness for core services.[1]
- Modernised workloads on AWS to improve speed and student experience.
- Architecture tuned for cost and performance, with governance controls.
- Demonstrates the region’s capability to deliver large, complex migrations.
2) Sheffield City Council: Azure migration and 24/7 operations
Impact: Following a cloud readiness assessment, Sheffield City Council re‑hosted Windows and SQL workloads to Azure with 24/7 co‑managed platform support. This included governance, security and efficiency improvements across the estate.[2]
- Azure hosting with managed operations and guardrails in place.
- Public references to ongoing managed infrastructure services procurement via G‑Cloud support the shift to cloud operations.[3]
- Citizen engagement platforms also moved to cloud services, improving digital access.[4]
3) Sheffield Hallam University: Rapid Azure adoption for teaching at scale
Impact: In a twelve‑week push, Sheffield Hallam University deployed the UK’s largest Azure Lab Services client and implemented Azure Virtual Desktop to deliver resource‑intensive software remotely for students, while progressing a wider Azure migration programme.[5][6]
- Fast enablement of virtual labs and VDI to support teaching needs.
- Enterprise cloud programme to modernise services and reduce OpEx/CapEx.
- Shows how cloud can unlock new delivery models for education in the region.
Sector snapshots: healthcare and public services
- NHS England operates large AWS and growing Azure estates, consolidating hundreds of accounts with stronger governance and automation — a model relevant to South Yorkshire health organisations too.[7]
- NHS cloud adoption case libraries show repeatable migration patterns to AWS and Azure, highlighting security, interoperability and cost control in regulated settings.[8]
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References
- University of Sheffield improves performance 15× by migrating to AWS (partner success, June 2024). aws.amazon.com.
- Sheffield City Council: Azure migration of Windows/SQL workloads with 24/7 co‑managed platform support (case study). ans.co.uk.
- Sheffield City Council decision record on core infrastructure managed service via G‑Cloud. sheffieldcc.moderngov.co.uk.
- Sheffield City Council: cloud customer engagement platform case study. verint.com.
- Sheffield Hallam University: largest UK Azure Lab Services client in 12 weeks, plus Azure Virtual Desktop. wired-gov.net.
- Sheffield Hallam University: Azure migration programme and transition planning. coreazure.com (see SHU case study PDF).
- NHS England: consolidating large AWS and growing Azure estates with stronger governance and automation. nordcloud.com.
- NHS England Digital Cloud Centre of Excellence: AWS and Azure case study libraries. digital.nhs.uk.
Author: Carl Heaton
Carl is a founder and CTO/CISO of Pipe Ten and uses his role to drive the company’s vision to transform business online in delivering it’s mission to forge agile technical partnerships that accelerate web success. Carl boasts an illustrious career spanning over two decades, starting as a fledgling web developer in his teens, he swiftly ascended the ranks, honing his skills in architecting secure web application infrastructure. With his finger on the pulse of emerging web technologies, Carl has tracked and influenced the ever changing world of cyber security, internet governance, industry regulations and information security compliance ensuring Pipe Ten successfully achieved and maintain ISO/IEC 27001 certification.